To Slay the Dreamer

by Alexander Cordell

First published 1980

Amazon

2.6(5)

During the Spanish Civil War, a Spanish countess and an American assassin become involved with partisan fighters in a plan aimed at Francisco Franco. Mountain routes through Spain and the French Pyrenees turn the mission into a contest of endurance as political conviction, personal loyalty and the practical realities of clandestine warfare collide.
Franco’s military leadership and the Nationalist challenge to the Spanish Republic give the assassination plot its historical stakes. Cordell uses the mission to explore the fractured alliances of civil war, where ideology can unite strangers while distrust divides nominal allies. The novel combines the pace of a thriller with the uncertainty of a conflict in which the future of Spain is being fought over village by village and mountain pass by mountain pass.